When Ashley's shift ended she was tired and her feet hurt. But she would have preferred to have continued to work than go home and have time to think. It was the last thing she needed.

Maddox called her later that day but she let her phone ring. She wasn't ready to speak to him after what he had witnessed. Her mom was spoiling for a fight with her father so she called Diane and asked what she was up to. She had to get out the house before another screaming match erupted.

"Nothing. You wanna come over?"

She pulled at the thread in her blanket as she contemplated if she was going to be good company.

"We can invite Sally was well. We haven't had a girls night in ages."

It would be nice to hang out with them and keep her mind off her other problems.

"I'm not sure I'm in the mood to go out and paint the night red."

"We can stay in and have a slumber party."

That made her grin. "We aren't ten anymore."

"Nothing wrong with a night of girl bonding...and junk food.... soda...chocolate..."

"You had me at chocolate. I'll be over in an hour."

While she shoved some clothes into a bag she reminisced on all the things we had gotten up to when we had slumber parties. There had been one with shaving cream. That had been a mess.

Then was the one they had tried dyeing Sally's hair and it had gone a strange orange color. Thankfully it had only been a temporary otherwise Sally's mom, Mrs Whitfield, would have had a fit.

She hook her head. It was only later boys and makeup had taken over.

The first time she had tried to put make up in Diane she had ended up looking like a clown. Her face when she had presented her with a mirror to check out her handiwork had been priceless horror.

Reminiscing about those memories reminded her of a time when her home life hadn't been as bad. Then her parents hadn't fought as much. The intensity had worsened over the years.

The one thing that she had always hated about staying over at her friends houses was how different their home environments were. It reminded her of what she didn't have.

Sally's parents still behaved like teenagers in love and even though there wasn't a lot of affection between Diane's parents you could tell the love they held for each other in secret looks they shared when they didn't know they were being watched. It was sweet and gave her hope that not all marriages ended up like her parents' marriage.

It made her envious of her friends and it made her question why her home life had to be like a war zone. It only increased her resentful feelings toward her parents. They weren't only screwing up their marriage they were screwing her up too. The atmosphere at home kept her on edge and anxious, it was difficult to handle much when she felt that most of the time.

"I'm staying over at Di's tonight," she yelled at her mom as she passed the kitchen.

Her parents fighting lulled for a few moments.

"That's fine." Her mom yelled back.

She was free for the night but only from the sounds of their arguing. She wasn't free from her thoughts that Maddox knew about something she had successfully hid from everyone else.

She threw her overnight bag into the backseat before she got into the car and started it. She turned the radio up so it she couldn't focus on anything else other than the music.

All the way to Diane's house she sang along to the music refusing to allow herself to wallow in what Maddox would think of her now that he had seen what was happening at her home.

When she parked in front of Diane's house she saw Sally's car. She had beat her there.

She promised herself that for the night she was going to forget about Maddox and her parents. She was going to concentrate on spending some time with her friends doing things that girls their age did.

But Maddox's reaction to her parents fighting replayed in her mind for most of the night. Despite the girlie movies and overload of sugar and salt there was no getting away from it.

The next morning she was up early for work. She got dressed and left her friends still sleeping.

Usually she hated work but today she was thankful to have something keep her mind busy, even if it was just for the morning.

She hummed to a song on the radio as she drove to work, trying to figure out how she was going to avoid Maddox. He had seen a part of her life she hadn't wanted to share with anyone, especially him. It was bad enough he interrupted a private moment in the forest and now this. Her cheeks warmed.

There was nothing she could do to change what he had seen and she knew she couldn't avoid him forever but she needed a chance to recover before she spoke to him.

Just thinking about him was enough for her to feel the familiar fluttering feeling she experienced when she was with him.

Remembering how she had forgotten about her shift replayed heavily on her mind. It reminded her of how dangerous he was to her. She had to keep this thing between them from developing into something more even though she wanted to spend more time with him.

How he made her feel was addictive and it was going to take more strength than she believe she had to give it up.

Feeling more despondent she arrived at work. And thankfully she was busy enough for the next few hours so she didn't think about Maddox or what he had witnessed. It was easy when her mind was filled with orders and she was rushing between tables.

It was only when her shift ended and she hung up her uniform did she think about him again. No guy had ever consumed her thoughts the way he did.

Her parents had always spoken of how they had fallen in love. There had been a wistfulness of a past they had lost. She couldn't help but think was this how it had started with them. A look which had led to something stronger, like things with Maddox. Maybe that was what scared her the most about her newly developing feelings for the guy who made her heart do things it had never done before, was the way it consumed her like nothing else.

She received another missed call from Maddox while she worked her shift and she knew she couldn't ignore him forever. At some point she would have to face him and what he had discovered about her home life. She just wasn't ready yet. She wasn't sure she was going to be ready tomorrow when she had to see him at school. For the first time in a long while she felt like skipping school.

She hadn't figured out what she was going to say to Maddox. They had just come to an understanding about what we were both experiencing and then he had been given an insight into her screwed up home life. He knew more about her than anyone else.

In her mind she could still see the sympathetic look he had given her in the car and it made her feel more vulnerable, open for him to see. She didn't want him to look at her like.

After she left work she drove around for a while before going home. She had no idea if she was going to be entering a war zone or not. There was no way to preempt the situation when it came to her parents. Some days they successfully ignored each other but most days they didn't.

The sound of the raised voices coming from her house made her park her car and head into the forest to find some peace.

When she made it to her usual spot she sat down beneath a nearby tree. She tried to figure out what she was going to do next with Maddox.

Her phone rang but she didn't even check to see who was calling. She doubted it was her parents as they were probably still fighting and she didn't feel like talking to anyone anyway.